Same Problems, Different Scenery
by BethyBoo97
Summary: Jean has made a mess of her life in Oxford, so she's run away. Can the boys track her down and make her see sense? What will they find out about their boss along the way?
1. Chapter 1

She looked at the paper in her hand once more before she carefully folded it and placed it into the envelope that she had already laid out. Tears filled her eyes as she slowly wrote his name on the front of it, she didn't want to have to be doing this but she had little choice in the matter and it was her own fault that she was in this mess.

Her heart was screaming out to her not to do this, that she'd regret it, but her head told her to continue as she walked the 10 steps from her office to his office. Thankfully the owners of the office she had entered weren't there, which made everything all the more easy. Jean sighed as she carefully propped the letter up against his computer monitor, being careful not to disturb anything else on the desk.

Perhaps that was the easy bit, for it was okay setting out to leave but it was another thing picking up your bags and actually doing it. She took one last look around her own office before with one hand she picked up her handbag, which now contained the most important stuff from her office and in the other hand she carried a chocolate brownie, which she happened to love but also was an attempt at gaining some energy after a night of broken sleep. Carol, her secretary had gone out to lunch meaning that she could slip out unnoticed. Only her boss knew that this was her last day so that no one could try and stop her or make a fuss. She pulled the door to behind her and headed out of the building that she'd worked in since she'd been fresh out of university, and walked over to her car. All of the things she treasured from her house, as well as basic essentials, had made it into the car the previous night while her husband was asleep. As much as she wanted to take all of her belongings, realistically she couldn't because then it would have been obvious to even her husband, who was so rarely home and when he was couldn't care less about anything to do with her. Anyway, she had no plans for what she was doing now, she'd planned to go and stay with her sister for a while but as far as plans went, that was a rubbish and extremely short term one.

She sat in her car staring straight ahead, taking in the views of Oxford that she didn't plan on seeing again anytime soon. Oxford had been all she'd ever known and now she was going to stay with her sister down in London, leaving everything she'd ever known and most of the people she cared about, including her son, because of the mess she'd gotten herself into. The radio sprang into life as she finally turned the key in the ignition, playing the album that it always did, James'. That was the final push she needed, she needed to do this there was little other choice. With the radio now off, she pulled out of her parking space outside of her old offices and drove out of Oxford, tears falling down her cheeks and splashing onto the steering wheel as she did, and with that she was gone.

**A/N I hope you enjoyed this. Chapters are going to alternate between Jean and then everyone back in Oxford. I hope it doesn't get to confusing. Reviews welcomed, enjoy!**

**Beth x**


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, you go and pick up what we need from the office and I'll go and get Innocent to sign off the warrant." Robbie told James as they split in the hallway, James going to their office and Robbie going to their bosses office.

The door to Jean's office was unusually open and in fact empty of the person that Robbie was looking for. He walked the short distance to his own office to find James rooting through a box of evidence looking for what they needed.

"Sergeant..." Robbie addressed James and walked back to their bosses office, signalling that he was to follow, which he did. "Can you remember what was on her desk?" James looked at him puzzled for a moment.

"Yeah, she had a picture of Chris and her old dog..." James began, still confused by Robbie's line of questioning. "They're gone. How are you in here when she isn't?"

"The door was left open and she was absent. Well we can't get a warrant without her here and I doubt she'll be long so we might as well have a cuppa while we've got 5 minutes." Robbie sighed as they both walked back to their office while James tried to suppress the feeling that something was wrong.

James sat at his desk with his drink while Robbie had gone of to the toilet, the first thing that caught his eye was the presence of a white envelope resting against his computer monitor. The writing on the front he would recognise anywhere and it made his heart flutter just thinking of the woman who'd sent it. He looked round just to check that Robbie had not returned and then slid his finger across the lid of the envelope and flicked it open. The scent of Jean's perfume filled the room as James pulled the letter out of the envelope.

_Dearest James, _

_I am so sorry that this is how it's ended, this is what had to happen though. I hope you never doubt how I feel about you because I never lied about that, please remember that once I tell you that we were a mistake. I had the most wonderful time with you, the few months that we were together were the happiest ones that I have ever lived. I remember sat in the cold by the river after that recital with you, when you put your arm around me and told me that you loved me, I'll never forget that night and how it ended because that night was all I had wanted for so long and all I still want. Unfortunately I can't have you, I should never have allowed this to happen, work aside, I'm married. I know that Richard has never been faithful but I took my vows seriously. _

_By now you may or may not have realised that I'm not in the office, I needed to get away from Oxford and the mess I've made. I've not left you for Richard, because if anything it'd be the other way round and I'd be leaving him for you, but it's just not possible. I've made a mess of my life in Oxford and that's why I needed to get away. Please try to forget about me James, move on with your life. You deserve someone better than me, and trust me you'll get it. _

_All my love always, _

_Jean x _

He sat back in his chair, unsure of whether she was playing a cruel joke or not. All the pieces fitted together now and he didn't like the picture that they made. He loved Jean, there may have been an age gap, there may have been a difference in ranking too but it didn't matter because he loved her. At first he'd been wary of her marriage, but it wasn't a marriage where either person involved loved the other, and he loved her too much to care after that. He'd even bought everything to make their night amazing, as her husband was away and she could spend a whole night with him. Something wasn't right, he could feel it and intended to find her to fix it.


	3. Chapter 3

She was sat in the self contained converted garage at her sister's house in London, tears were still freely flowing down her face and had been since she'd left Oxford just over an hour before hand. Jean's sister, Paula would be returning any second with a hot drink, or a bottle or two of wine, for a chat, chatting was really the last thing she wanted to do but she knew that she could talk to her older sister without being judged. Her iphone lay on the bed in front of her and had sprung to life in front of her and was now vibrating and displaying a picture on the screen of James, alerting her to the fact that he was calling.

"Can I come in J?" Paula asked softly from the other side of the door.

"Of course you can. I'm sorry Paul, I'll be out of your hair as soon as I can be." Jean apologized.

"No you won't be, I want you to stay, especially when you're this upset. Anyway I can't let you go without a proper catch up, but I think that's for later with a bottle. I've brought you a tea and some chocolate, so are you ready to tell me what's up lil' sis'?"

"I've been so stupid Paul, really stupid." Jean told her.

"I doubt it's that bad, you've always been the sensible one. You used to say that if you'd lost one mark on a test." Paula laughed.

"This is different..."

"That sounds serious. Go on then."

"I had an affair." Jean begun, "Well not an affair, that makes it sound dirty. I fell in love Paul." Paula stared at her, putting Jean on edge.

"And?"

"I'm married, unless you'd forgotten."

"To an idiot who treats you like something he's stepped in. You deserve to find love, now you can kick Richard into touch and be happy."

"No, I can't. I shouldn't have done it Paula, I broke my marriage vows. I fell in love with someone I shouldn't have."

"Right so you left Oxford because you fell in love with someone who wasn't your lying cheating husband?" Paula asked.

"I've made a mess of my life there. I've left them both, James deserves better than me, he really does. I'm going to make a fresh start somewhere new."

"So let me get this straight, you're running away because that idiot has made you believe that people deserve better than you..."

"No, I need to do this for me." Jean interrupted before yawning.

"How about I let you have a nap and then we'll talk more later when you're calmer? I'm going shopping to get things for tea, any requests?"

"Just some chocolate brownies please, they're all that's boosting my energy just now."

"Okay, sleep does the same though and is a lot better for you so try and get some."

Paula left the garage, leaving Jean all by herself and her still ringing phone. It hadn't stopped so now it was on silent so she couldn't hear it, she'd said all she'd needed to. If he said anything to her then she'd change her mind and she couldn't do that just now. She lay down on the bed and curled up in fetal position and sobbed, her head was aching from the amount of tears she'd cried and she felt nauseous with the worry she was feeling, above all she just felt so weak and drained and yet she couldn't sleep. Instead she lay there, eyes open and not moving as if she was dead. Her tears had subsided but this was far from over.


	4. Chapter 4

"James, I told you that the lab reports wouldn't be back until tomorrow." Laura snapped as she looked up and noticed James and then looked back down to what she was doing.

"It's not that, it's Jean." James replied, Laura's head pricked up. She'd known James for years, they even all socialised together but never had he heard James call his boss by her Christian name.

"What?" Laura asked gently, she looked up and noticed the red around James' eyes, which was further highlighted by his otherwise pale complexion. "Come through to the office." She told him as she discarded what she was previously doing.

James followed her through to her office and shut the door behind them, he turned to see Laura gazing at him expectantly.

"What's happened?" Laura asked softly, she was good with people which is why she knew that she had to be soft with this. The feeling of worry in the pit of her stomach wasn't calming at all and the look that James was giving her was doing little to subside it. The worry in her voice was so genuine that it was his first clue that she didn't know what was happening.

"She's gone." James whispered.

"James, she's probably nipped to the shops or something." Laura replied calmly, although she was trying to pose a logical argument, she was far from calm.

"No, she left me this." James said after a moments consideration, after all he had to reveal their secret, meaning Jean was even more likely to not want to speak to him. Laura didn't take her eyes off James as she opened the letter, but then looked to the letter as she read. There was no judgement in her eyes as she tucked the sheet of paper gently back inside of the envelope. "I take it you don't know where she is?" James sighed, knowing that he was no further forward than before.

"No, I'm sorry..."

"But you two talk about everything..."

"Clearly not, I never knew that you two were in love and together." Laura said, and still there was no hostility in her voice. "I have a plan though."


	5. Chapter 5

Jean awoke to find Paula sitting at the end of her bed, the room had become a lot darker than she could remember it being before, yet she couldn't actually remember falling asleep.

"How long have I been asleep?" Jean asked sleepily.

"Well I don't know how long you were asleep before I got home but that was nearly 6 hours ago."

"Oh God."

"Don't apologize, you obviously needed the sleep. I brought you up the brownies you asked for but you missed dinner. I saved you some if you're hungry, you just need to reheat it. The kids want to see their Aunty Jeanie too before they go to bed."

"Thank you, I'll see the kids tomorrow, I don't want them seeing me like this."

"And dinner?"

"Sorry Paul but I'm not hungry, the brownies will be fine."

"Okay but you have to start eating properly tomorrow. Have you spoken to anyone back in Oxford?"

"No, my phone wouldn't shut up so I put it on silent and I haven't checked it since."

"Okay, well I've got to go and put the kids to bed but feel free to come up to the house if you want. I have plenty of alcohol if that's what you need."

"Thanks but I'd rather just eat the brownies and sleep if you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind but the offer is there. You know how to work the tv in here and you know where everything is so I'll leave you to it. Night J and don't you dare go over thinking things, I know what you're like."

"I won't, night."

Paula had gone, leaving Jean sat on the bed in this converted garage on her own. The darkness had now overtaken the room and the silence was providing her with way too much time to think. She reached over for the packet of brownies that her older sister had left her and took one out of the packet, her body was craving them and the energy they provided her with and the momentary distraction. Momentary wasn't enough, she turned the tv on in search of some mindless TV that she could get lost in for a bit only finding a comedy panel show. This only succeeded in reminding her why she didn't watch much telly, especially seeing as the filth coming out of the panelists mouth's passed for comedy now a days. She flicked onto another channel and saw a live stream of a music festival back in Oxford that James had spent weeks trying to persuade her to go with him to, promising that no one would see her. Fresh tears spilled down her face at the reminder of the man that she was in love with and had run away from. She stood up from her position on the bed and walked down to the main house where Paula and her husband were curled up watching TV.

"Jean?" Paula asked as she turned around to see tears streaming down her little sisters cheeks. "Baby, I think Jean and I need to have a chat." Paula turned back to her husband, Stewart, who looked extremely worried at the state that his sister in law was in.

"Jean can I get you anything?" Stew asked.

"A glass of water please." Jean whispered as she tried not to burst out sobbing.

Stewart returned with a glass of water for Jean and a glass of wine for his wife and then cleared off upstairs to give the two sisters a bit of time to talk. He had no idea what was going on and figured that he probably wouldn't for a while. That didn't matter though because all he wanted was for to Jean to be okay, he'd known her for years and yet he'd never seen her cry so that state she was in down the stairs was extremely worrying.


	6. Chapter 6

James sat staring at the clock in his small apartment, it had been hours since he'd left the morgue where Laura had promised that she'd be round later to discuss her plan. He couldn't believe that Jean had gone, the reality of the situation was just beginning to sink in and he didn't like it. He'd frequently had days at work when he was so busy that he didn't see Jean but they always made up for it later that night, when she could sneak away. It was 7 o'clock though and apart from the letter, he hadn't heard from her all day. It wasn't that he hadn't tried to get through to her, he'd left numerous voicemails and he was pretty sure he'd broken the fair use policy on his contract regarding the unlimited texts on his phone contract in the space of one day, and yet she hadn't replied to a single one.

He'd ventured into his room earlier in the night to get changed but it had made him feel worse. His bedroom smelt strongly of her perfume mixed with the slight scent of her shampoo. Doing his best to ignore that, he'd walked over to his wardrobe to find something that was more comfortable than the suits he wore for work, only to see a selection of Jean's clothes hung up alongside his, for when she managed to get a whole night with him. All of this meant that he couldn't go into his bedroom, he hadn't even bothered with his bathroom after that as he knew that there would be more of Jean's things dotted around there. In the end, the living room had seemed more safe and even there one of Jean's books lay out on the coffee table, everywhere there were little reminders of Jean, from the way everything in his kitchen was organised to the things that she'd recorded on his TV for when she was there. She had infiltrated every part of his life and he wouldn't have had it any other way but now with a day without her under his belt, he was mourning her loss as if she was dead, only this was harder as she'd chosen to go.

The doorbell brought him back to reality from his thoughts, on his doorstep he found Laura with a bottle of wine, for which he assumed was for herself, a pack of beers for him and a take away.

"You didn't need to do all of this." James told her as he took the stuff from her hands and moved aside to let his friend inside. Laura took her coat off and placed it on a hook between one of James' coats and another that she recognised as her absent best friend's.

"I figured you've probably not eaten today and then I thought you'll need the alcohol and I wasn't going to let you get drunk on your own. While we're working ourselves towards drunk though, we actually need to consider my plan."

"Thank you Laura, take a seat and I'll plate this up and pour you a glass. You can start telling me about this plan of yours while I do." James replied as he started opening various containers that Laura had brought and spooning it onto the two plates in front of him.

"First I need to check a few things..."

"Go on."

"You do love her, don't you? This isn't just about sleeping with the boss or having someone to hook up with regularly but now you're ashamed at the thought of people finding out?" Laura asked, she already knew the answer to her question but she needed to hear him say it.

"Do you really think I'd be this upset if I didn't love her? She's constantly on my mind, she gives my life a purpose, I was made to love her. Her smile makes my heart skip a beat, the sight of her makes me want to use every word I could think of to tell her how perfect and how stunning she is. I wish she wasn't married and that we could have been together properly but life isn't that easy and we just wanted to be together however we could be. Take a look around, her stuff is dotted around as if it was meant to be here, just like she is." James sighed.

"Okay, can I have a look around please? I just want to see if there's anything that could give us any clues?" Laura asked, knowing that James was usually a very secretive person but as well as actually being helpful, this was a test because if he let her have a look then it further confirmed his love for her best friend.

"Of course you can."


	7. Chapter 7

"So tell me about this man that you've fallen so hopelessly in love with, James wasn't it?" Paula asked, starting off easy. Jean just looked at her sister, for a minute the whole situation wasn't so messy, for a minute she was almost back to being a teenager telling her sister about her latest crush.

"He's perfect Paul, and yeah it's James. He's a sergeant in my team and he's amazing at his job. He is amazing to look at but oh my God, it's what's on the inside that's even better. I have never known a man so caring and so in tune with what I want. He's protective but in a good way, if I was 15 years younger and not already married then it'd have been him who I spent my life with. I have never felt like this before, even when I first got with Richard." Jean sighed as she slipped back into a world where all that mattered was James.

"So how did you get from just working together to a relationship?" Paul asked and immediately saw a smile spread across her sister's face.

"Well it was four months ago, we'd gone to a recital at one of the colleges with Robbie and Laura. Laura hadn't felt well so her and Robbie left early. I was upset that night, I can't remember why now, but I told James that I was walking home, I wanted some time to think. He turned to me and told me that he wasn't letting me walk home on my own in the pitch black and that he'd walk me home. We walked in silence for a bit until we reached the park, I stopped for some reason and just stared at the river, he came up next to me and noticed me crying. We both sat down on the river bank in the freezing cold, it sounds like some teenage thing to do but he noticed I was cold and wrapped his coat around my shoulders. We just sat for a while before I told him what was wrong, he put his arm around me and I automatically curled up into his side. I don't think he meant to but he told me he loved me and without thinking I kissed him. Needless to say, I never ended up home that night. We both realised that we were in love and that's been it ever since."

"I'm so pleased for you Jean, and I know what you said earlier but if that's how you feel then why are you here and not with him?"

"Because I'm married Paul."

"You were 4 months ago too J, so what is it really? Don't tell me all about commitment and all that because if I was you I'd have divorced the idiot and be with James in a shot."

"It's not that easy."

"My point is that it could be though."

"I shouldn't have bothered you, I'm should get to bed." Jean said as she ran out of the main house and back to the garage. Her phone lay on her bed and was no longer flashing, she walked over and picked it up, she had a lot of missed calls, the majority of which were from James but with a few from Carol, Laura, Robbie and one from her son dotted through her call log list. Her text messages were filled by the same people, with texts also telling her that she had voicemails to listen to, all of the texts lay unopened as she lay her phone back down and crawled into bed.

Paula's questions had reminded her just why she was doing this just now, it was a tricky situation and one that she wasn't on planning on sharing the extent of with her sister.


	8. Chapter 8

Laura firstly looked around James' living room and found plenty of Jean's stuff but nothing that proved in the slightest useful, which was pretty much the same around all of this flat, that was until she reached the bathroom.

Laura opened the small cupboard above the sink, and after having viewed the rest of James' flat, she wasn't surprised to see that there were a whole shelf of Jean's things. Most were the usuals, moisturiser, hand cream but behind the box of sanitary towels sat perhaps the biggest hint to why Jean had left. Laura looked at the opened box that was now in her hand before she bent down and opened the small bin, sure enough she found exactly what she'd now expected to find. She sat on the side of the bath for a minute and stared at the object in her hand.

"James, how often do you empty this bin?" Laura called through the flat.

"Once a week, why?" James replied as he walked closed to where she was.

"When was Jean last here?" Laura asked, ignoring James's last question and now his questioning look as he stood at the doorway watching her.

"She was here for a few hours last night but she wasn't feeling great so she went home." James replied before he caught sight of the object in Laura's hand, his policing skills were going to waste as you didn't need to be a police officer to work out where Laura was going with this. "Jean's pregnant?" James asked the excitement obvious in his voice, it was heartbreaking for Laura to watch her friend's expression turn from ecstatic to devestated in a matter of moments as the memory of the situation flooded back in.

"Yes, unless anyone else has been here." Laura replied, not really knowing herself how to take the news.

"I haven't cheated." James protested.

"I know, I meant friends or family."

"Oh, no they haven't." Jean may be carrying his child but she was still married to someone else and even if they managed to solve that problem, the issue of Jean being awol was ever present and one that was becoming harder and harder to solve.


End file.
